blueprint

One of the questions that I am frequently asked by ministry friends is: can Ministry Architects help a church with their strategic plan? And usually a follow-up question, how do we start?? We can and we do! Let us help you get started. Here’s why.

One of the things I love most about Ministry Architects and why I’ve been a consultant with the company since 2008, is the high value we put on intentionality. Ministry Architects designs a strategic visioning process with each church, some parts of it are tried and true and used with other groups, but for the most part, the church receives a tailor-made sequence that helps deepen the church’s roots, casts a clear vision, and establishes a plan towards making dreams a reality. The strategic visioning process typically takes place in this order:

The Assessment. The church gets an opportunity to host focus groups and allow the church-members and leadership to speak into current challenges as well as blessings and gifts the congregation holds. Ministry Architects makes recommendations to address the current challenges in concrete ways as well as leverage assets and gifts. This helps create a firm foundation so that a strategic visioning process is built upon something solid with little to no cracks in the foundation.

Identity. Who are we and who is our target audience? Answering these sometimes challenging questions helps open up a wider lens. Helping the church create a visioning statement (or a new mission statement) and a list of core values is so important to ensure the church has common vocabulary around who they are and what role they play in their community (neighborhood, city, wider-church community). It will be important that all goals track back to the original mission statement and the spirit of the work reflects the values.

Visioning. Dreamers are allowed to let loose and dream “big, hairy and audacious” goals! The participants in the visioning process (often called a Visioning Summit), craft longer term strategic goals and we as the consultant help make them measurable and in line with best practices. A recruited team of volunteers as well as the Vestry, Session, or whatever lay leadership is in place at your church or institution, takes these goals and prays with them, sits with them, and makes sure they fit the church’s DNA and current context. We know that with God all things are possible… and we also know with a good finance committee, we can make sure we are good stewards God’s goodness and imagination we have for our communities!

Recently, I was able to work with St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dallas, TX to launch their strategic visioning process. We’ve partnered with them for 18-months to walk alongside them in this process so it does not feel overwhelming and to provide accountability and resources along the way. St. John’s is a wonderfully unique Anglo-Catholic parish in East Dallas that has seen steady growth over the last few years. It was time to leverage that growth, clarify their identity as the community around them grows and changes, and cast a vision for moving forward. The Rector recently reflected on their strategic visioning process in the weekly e-newsletter. It is so important to start this process right.

Nurturing Faith

by Father David Houk, Rector, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Dallas, TX

It happened. What I wanted to happen at our Vision Summit this past June actually happened.

I wanted the Vision Summit to be an experience of the Body of Christ together, where all of God’s people were able to give input and direction in the formulating of a new mission statement. Instead of a top-down process where the Rector and Vestry describe St. John’s character and mission, I wanted it to be a bottom-up, organic experience where all members and attenders shared what the Holy Spirit was put on their hearts.

And that’s what happened.

In an exercise where parishioners offered up words they felt best described St. John’s, one of the words that kept coming up was “nurturing.” I would have never thought of that word on my own. But it was perfect when I heard somebody else say it, and then another say it, and then another.

St. John’s is a nurturing church. We care for all kinds of people. We are accommodating and welcoming of folks who don’t know our Episcopal traditions. We meet and accept people wherever they are, just as we believe Jesus did the same. Sermons and classes nourish those who are just beginning their spiritual journey as well as those who have been walking with Christ for years. Another way of saying this is that St. John’s is made up of people and priests with a pastoral heart, able to encourage and strengthen faith in a community where no two people are the same.

We’ll be talking more about the mission statement in the weeks ahead. Let’s get to know it, memorize it, and live it together:

Nurturing faith, inspiring hope, and growing in love as we worship God, make disciples, and serve East Dallas and the world.

Email us today if you’re interested in getting started. We are excited to see what God is up to in your community! Hope we can be a part of it.

As you peruse Facebook, you’re bound to see the list challenges that appear with titles like, “Top 50 Books Everyone Should Read, How Many Have You Read?” Or, “The Bucket List Challenge, How Many of the Activities Have You Completed?” While it’s not popped up on my feed, I can imagine the list of items on the church challenge list.

Handed out last week’s bulletins for worship

Led a mission project with fewer volunteers than it required

Crashed the church van

Left the microphone on while in the restroom

Prayed with the wrong person in the hospital

Had an infant spit up on my stoles

Angered an entire committee during my first week

Called a church member by the wrong name

This list of challenges that you may face in the church is endless. The truth is that your church is either resolving a challenge or creating one. With God at work in your church, it’s a constant ebb and flow of challenges in the life of the church. While many of us face the next challenge with anxiety, we should be anticipating the next challenge with joy.

To do so, let’s consider the approach that is taken. Often, we take the next good idea from the top of the stack on our desk and move to implementing that latest and greatest idea. Sometimes, this will work for a season, but it rarely addresses the underlying problems. You may hear that new visitors don’t return to your church because they went unnoticed during their visit. Rather than reviewing how they are greeted or welcomed, the church might move straight to develop a new member class that build connections with church staff and leaders. While that might provide great value, it still has not addressed how visitors are greeted, welcomed, contacted, and followed-up with after their first day at the church. The good idea is… well… good, but it’s really the third step in addressing a challenge.

There are three crucial steps every church should take when addressing the challenges, the church is facing.

Assess – Take time to ask questions and listen to responses. As James suggests, we move quickly to listening to those who are impacted by the challenges in the church. We listen for what they love about the church and why this challenge is frustrating to them. It’s in this stage that we truly discover the root of problem we face. Like a doctor would suggest, if your hip hurts the problem may lie in your hip, knee, or ankle.

Blueprint – Using all that you have learned while assessing (listening) the ministry or challenge area, it’s time to draft a new blueprint for the ministry area. You’re building a new plan to achieve new results and speak joy into the ministry. It’s in this phase that new plans are created, new ideas explored, and imagining what it might look like if we moved the ministry in this direction.

Implement – It’s now time to put the next good idea in place. However, only the ideas that help to achieve the new results we desire should be included. If it won’t provide the new results that we want to produce, keep it in your “good idea” stack for another time and focus your energy on the blueprint that’s been designed to achieve those new outcomes from the ministry.

It’s tempting to jump straight to designing a new blueprint or even implementing new ideas without first address the underlying problem. However, it’s unlikely to build the momentum you deeply want to see. Take time to listen to your church, before moving into action.

Introduction

Have you ever been part of a BIG building project – one that required real blueprints? Or have you ever been involved in site development for a multi-building plan for a park or camp? I’ve always loved building things, and along the way I’ve learned that every really good result starts with a really good plan.

A Great Result Starts with a Great Plan

Your youth ministry really is a big project, and if you want it to accomplish what you sincerely feel God is calling you to accomplish, then you’re going to want to give your planning a high-quality shot. Let me give you an example …

About five years ago my family realized that it was the right time for us to build a new home. As my wife and I were both nearing retirement, we knew we would need to plan for that part of our lives. Our three children were completing their schooling and entering the workforce. We had to decide (and plan) what we wanted this new home to “do” for us.

So we started with some ideas:

Home is where the family gathers, and we wanted our home to be a place that family members would enjoy bringing their friends (or families in the future).

We wanted an informal home – no sacred, seldom-used living room and no formal dining room.

We love the outdoors and wanted to engage the outdoors as part of our plan. It’s one of the best ways that we stay connected to God.

We wanted to use natural building materials and colors that would be a natural fit for the wooded lot which we had bought earlier.

These were some of the things that we wanted our home to do for us, and after researching a number of plans, ideas, and styles, we began to work with a design engineer who developed our blueprints – sixteen pages of plans on paper that it would take to build the home for which we hoped. By doing that kind of careful planning we were able to pull it off!

So What Do You Want Your Youth Ministry to Do for the Kingdom? What Will Your House Look Like?

Maybe you have a really good answer to that question… maybe you don’t. But you have to know the answer to that question before you can really build a great youth ministry.

What are the ideas that are a part of your youth ministry house?

Maybe your youth ministry is worship driven, and you want a large space with a stage and lots of electronic possibilities.

Maybe you want a mission-driven house where you need storage for food or clothing drives.

Maybe your youth ministry house needs lots of spaces to accommodate small groups or breakout sessions.

Maybe you want an athletic ministry centered around sports teams.

Maybe you need more of a concert house to accommodate a music-oriented ministry.

If you are struggling with what kind of youth ministry house is right for you, you might consider bringing in an outside firm to help you explore that question in order to find out what is just right for you and your ministry.

But that’s just the first page of the blueprints…

Sixteen Pages… Really?

Really!

I don’t think I can come up with all sixteen, but each of those pages in our family house plan was geared toward a specific thing. The front page gave a picture of the end result, but all of those other pages described what it would take to get there. Those pages described things like: dirt work to prepare the lot for building, footings, foundation, plumbing, electrical, framing, roof trusses, roofing, masonry, landscaping, and others to reflect the second floor.

But the blueprint for your youth ministry house needs lots of pages, too. You may have a picture of what you’re shooting for, but you’ll also need to plan for some specific things. You’ll need a facilities page, a budget page, a staffing page, a volunteer page, a leadership training page, a policies and procedures page, a transportation page, a communications page, an administrative page… you see what I mean.

But here’s the thing… they all have to fit together!

Think of Your Blueprint in Layers

So, let’s suppose that you have determined the right type of youth ministry house for you. Imagine that you are looking down at the top of your youth ministry house from about 300 feet up… don’t get scared now.

For an example, let’s say that you need a youth ministry house that allows you to focus on one large worship gathering for 130 youth, but you also want to break out into twelve small groups (two gender-based groups for each grade). Of course, youth ministry is complex, but we’ll keep this simple.

Start with the facilities page – It might look like one large hub with smaller spaces around the edges for small groups.

Now fold over the staffing page – maybe it has a lead youth minister, a half-time worship leader, a half-time small group coordinator, and a full-time administrative assistant.

Fold over the volunteer page – it probably includes band members, production volunteers, small group leaders, hospitality folks, etc.

The budget page – there will be a commitment to sound equipment, video projection, and lighting in that budget, as well as to small group curriculum, and salaries, as a start.

There are lots of pages, but they should basically all look similar from 300 feet up. They should all reflect the same priorities and values, each layer reflecting the same commitments and goals, folding in on top of each other in full support of one another.

The youth ministry house begins to get scary when either a part of the ministry does not fit in with the rest of the blueprints or when the ministry begins to feel stuck in a house that will not accommodate what a ministry really feels led to be and do.

Build a Great House By Starting with a Great Plan

So get that great youth ministry house picture in your head. Imagine it from 300 feet overhead and start building from the ground up, adding layer after layer of just the right things that reflect what is needed for your particular house. And stick to the plan!

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Ministry Architects is a highly-skilled team of pastors, teachers, executives, youth workers, children's pastors, writers and professors. We're fanatical about success and we can help your church find clear direction and sustained momentum backed up by properly aligned resources.